Having built hundreds of timber frames with our customers over the years, we felt a fraud not to live in one ourselves! Our family home remained an inefficient 1940’s dormer bungalow.

We always wanted to build our own on the site of our former family home in Brandesburton. However, being outside of the Village development zone we thought It may be a challenge.

We knew that getting the building to accommodate all three generations to agree would be tricky, and we thought we may be in for a bumpy ride especially as we were outside of the village development boundary. However with the help of Graham Binnington Architects and Planning Consultant Doug Jennings we took the bold move to apply for two separate dwellings – they guided us through each step of the process sharing the experiences faced by many of our customers.

The patient and pragmatic approach paid dividends with the houses being granted planning early 2019.

The bulk of this year has been spent working behind the scenes removing trees, clearing the site, researching and removing 35 years of accumulated treasure from the house.

The demolition process was swift! It was conducted by Watts who came and made it look effortless clearing the site in a matter of days, leaving us with a blank canvas for the first house to be installed.

We decided to build the first of the two houses on the site of the former bungalow and keep the garage up to be used as storage for the first build – providing a larger secure area for materials.

We then got onto measuring out for the build, and this was an exciting process as it was fascinating to see the size and proportions of the rooms.

Measure twice – start right, and everything else will follow — work from the timber frame line and point loads and Blockwork Plan provided by TTF.

The foundations were then started, due to the proximity of the neighbouring hedge, the footings became a full trench fill up to 2m deep which was a bit of a shock to the budget. We always say to our customers that planning is the first hurdle and then the groundworks after that it is plain sailing.

The foundations were in within a few weeks, constructed by local builder Brian Fell (Leven) Ltd who we have worked on various projects with over many years.

Once the coursing blocks were completed, we had the scaffold installed. We used a System scaffold for the flexibility of lift height adjustment – The Layher system is available through many reputable firms we used Burflex. Now it was our turn to fit the timber frame! Queue the heavens opening – RAIN RAIN RAIN, we had so much rain during the install our guys grew webbed feet. It didn’t stop us though, the team preserved, and after just a couple of weeks, the timber frame was installed.

The next task was fitting the roof coverings to help get the building water tight, working with LA Hall for the roofing, Martin Dixon’s worked closely to co-ordinate the Solar PV panels and Solar Thermal panels.

We always recommend our customers to get the windows in as soon as the frame goes up (The sizes are accurate so that they can be ordered off-plan) this enables the building to be secure and watertight. But, due to a delay on getting the windows fitted we covered over the apertures with Clear plastic and formed reveals for the blockwork to be built to. This enabled us to make the building water tight and carry on with the build.

We are using the Advanced wall system with 50mm PIR internally to line the internal face of the external wall – this achieved a U Value of 0.13 see the attached calculation. To line the interior walls the stud locations are marked on the floor – the board fitted to all external walls then the vapour control and laths fitted over the top to create a 25mm service zone – this also is handy for the follow on trades.

The next job we did was the underfloor heating installed – laid on 120mm PIR insulation and a neat and well-prepared visqueen cover. The pipes were marked on the floor and pipes fastened to them.

Kevin from Homefoam came along next to insulate the roof – we have 222mm to the vaulted roof rafter and an additional 100mm below the flat roof.

The external blockwork skin was installed – having a mix of 100mm and 75mm blocks to maintain a flush finish externally between the mix of render and cedar cladding (Cladding and Render to be installed later)

We are currently waiting for the windows to be installed which will allow the render and plaster boarding work to be completed.
Watch this space for further updates over the coming weeks.

To arrange a viewing of the house and share in some top tips and discus your plans please complete the booking form or 01482 218945